Ballots to remain uncounted in MI and Stein blocked in Philly. Guest: Election integrity, law expert Paul Lehto says this proves 'only option is to get it right on Election Night'. Also: Trump taps climate denier, fossil-fuel tool for EPA...

I want to take this opportunity to wish all of the readers of "Daily Voting News" a wonderful holiday season. As long as there is voting news over this weekend DVN will continue to publish it. It is with a mixture of sadness and immense pride in my associate of over two years that I post this announcement regarding VotersUnite: "December 23, 2005. After two years of providing the public with accurate information about voting systems and related issues, Ellen Theisen is now working toward election transparency in a different way - by offering the Vote-PAD as an accessible alternative to computerized voting devices. To avoid any potential conflict of interest, Ellen is terminating her association with VotersUnite.Org, effective immediately." In today's news the AP has announced that the SoS of CA has warned ES&S about problems with their voting machines and has threatened that proceedings to decertify will begin if the problems are not solved....

One day after winning a court decision in North Carolina that seemed to open the door wide for Diebold to ply their wares in the state; they decided to pull out. Their concern is that they could be charged with a felony if officials determine the company failed to send a copy of all the software its machines use to a special holding company assigned by the state. They say they don't have permission to provide code that is owned by third parties such as Microsoft Corp. This leaves ES&S as the only approved vendor in the state. There is concern from St. Louis Co., MO that ES&S may be over-pricing their AutoMARK machines in an attempt to force some counties into purchasing their DREs....

Today has to be a bad day for two voting machine vendors. Diebold was told by the California SoS to send their system back to the Independent Test Authorities because some specific source code needs to be re-examined. In the meantime the state will not certify any Diebold voting machines. This morning a Temporary Restraining Order was filed by voters in New Mexico against the purchase of any Sequoia Edge voting machines. Included in the TRO is a statement from a developer of aides for disabled persons, who also happens to be blind, who correctly points out that the Sequoia AVC Edge DRE does not satisfy the disability access requirements of HAVA. There has been one disturbing announcement as a judge in North Carolina found for the state board of elections and against the voters of the state who pointed out that the voting systems certified by the state did not meet the law. Also in California a federal audit found that $3.8M of elections funds had been improperly spent by the previous SoS....

Last month The BRAD BLOG reported on an important lawsuit underway in New Mexico. We can now report that a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) has been filed and that plaintiffs have been added to the suit.

Today, attorneys for Patricia Rosas Lopategui, et al. and against Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron, et al. filed a temporary restraining order asking District Judge Eugenio Mathis for an emergency order blocking the Secretary of State from spending millions of dollars on Sequoia AVC Edge touch screen voting machines for use in Bernalillo, Dona Ana, Santa Fe and 11 other counties. According to their press release VoterAction, the group who is providing support to the attorneys and the plaintiffs in this case, says:

The plaintiffs allege that the machines are not accessible by disabled voters and violate a state law requirement for voter verifiable paper trail printers, necessary for meaningful audits and recounts. Plaintiffs also submitted substantial evidence that the Sequoia touchscreen voting systems are inaccurate and unreliable, having lost thousands of votes and switched countless others in recent elections.

As a part of their case, plaintiffs submitted the affidavit of Noel Runyan, an expert on the design of disabled access devices. Mr. Runyan, who is blind, gave this harsh assessment:

In my opinion, the Sequoia AVC Edge DRE does not satisfy the disability access requirements of HAVA, as incorporated into New Mexico law. This opinion is based on (1) the Edge's complete lack of any accommodation for persons with severe physical dexterity impairments who are unable to use touchscreens or keypads; (2) the gross inadequacy of the Edge's audio assist feature for persons who are blind or low vision; and (3) the Edge's failure to accommodate elderly voters who have developed severe visual impairments with age but are unfamiliar with and unable to cope with audio-only access technology because they have had normal vision most of their lives. In short, it is my opinion that a large portion of disabled citizens who attempt to cast their votes on Sequoia AVC Edge voting machines will be unable to do so.

The work done by these attorneys has already begun to reap benefits outside of the state of New Mexico as attorneys in other states have begun asking for advice and assistance. VoterAction has a copy of the filing and all attached exhibits posted on their website.

North Carolina counties continue to make their decisions on how their voters are going to vote. There are questions being asked in Alaska about the results of the 2004 general election as they were counted on the states Diebold machines. Finally a county shows that they have actually read and understand what HAVA really says. Benton Co., Arkansas wants to use central-count optical scan machines and they realize they need to augment that with an education program to cut down on over-voting. Benton County gets my award for doing what no one else seems to have done; they read the law and ignored the rhetoric....

North Carolina counties continue to meet and make their selections of voting machines for the future. Unfortunately they cannot wait until a decision from the court on whether any voting system presently certified by the state board of elections can, by law, be considered to be certified. The state is certainly doing nothing to stop the counties from making their decisions....

As an introduction, the "DVN Top 5" is a feature that I have been providing in the weekly voting newsletter of VoteTrustUSA. The December 13 edition can be found here. The selection of what will be the "Top 5" for each week and where it goes on the list is all mine. The fact that you may disagree with my choices is great because it shows that you have been reading the DVN articles that I've posted throughout the week here on BRAD BLOG!...

Today was a relatively slow day when compared to the past week. Of course the news of the Diebold failures is still coming out of Florida. However, it is the little seemingly innocuous articles that, at times, provide important news. Today it was reported that in Ohio SoS Blackwell chose a new voting system for Summit County. Diebold TSx? No, he turned his back on Diebold and assigned them ES&S OpScans and AutoMARK for the disabled voters....

Hans von Spakovsky. A German industrialist? A compatriot of artist Hieronymus Bosch? No. He is an attorney who is presently the head of the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division Voting Section. He is a member of the right-wing Federalist Society, and joined other Bush cronies in the Florida recount battle in 2000, and he is President Bush's newest recipient of a crony-nomination.

According to an article in today's Washington Post, von Spakovsky was nominated to the Federal Election Commission on Friday.

The nomination of von Spakovsky, a Republican, has already raised the hackles of some Democrats. According to WaPo:

In a letter to Senate Rules Committee Chairman Trent Lott (R-Miss.), Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) wrote that he is "extremely troubled" by the von Spakovsky nomination. Kennedy contends that von Spakovsky "may be at the heart of the political interference that is undermining the [Justice] Department's enforcement of federal civil laws."

WaPo added this:

Career Justice Department lawyers involved in a Georgia case said von Spakovsky pushed strongly for approval of a state program requiring voters to have photo identification. A team of staff lawyers that examined the case recommended 4 to 1 that the Georgia plan should be rejected because it would harm black voters; the recommendation was overruled by von Spakovsky and other senior officials in the Civil Rights Division.

Before working in the Justice Department, von Spakovsky was the Republican Party chairman in Fulton County, Ga., and served on the board of the Voter Integrity Project, which advocated regular purging of voter roles to prevent felons from casting ballots.

It is clear that von Spakovsky had the ear of another "crony nomination" recipient, Alberto Gonzales, when it came to making decisions on the Georgia Voter ID issue and Texas redistricting, both of which had been recommended against by the Justice Departments' career professionals in the Voting Rights Division, but were given acceptance by the DoJ anyway.

The Georgia law has since been found unconstitutional as a "Jim Crow-era Poll Tax" by two Federal courts, and the Texas redistricting, concerning which former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay now faces indictments, has just been agreed to be looked at by the United States Supreme Court.

One other very notable point here. A Democrat, Robert D. Lenhard, has also been nominated to the FEC by Bush. As pointed out by Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake: "He's the husband of [Time Magazine reporter] Viveca Novak, whose testimony now provides the foundation for Karl Rove's defense in the CIA leak case."

As well, Lenhard was "quite helpful to the 1600 Crew as part of the legal team that challenged the constitutionality of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law," according to Jane.

The news today, for a great part, was about Diebold and the lawsuits and Leon Co. test failure. The news day ended with the news that Volusia Co., Florida has decided to join Leon Co. in dumping their Diebold machines. How many counties will be joining in the march away from Diebold? The Ohio House of Representatives was not able to agree on part of the regressive HB3 legislation. It was not a disagreement over disenfranchisement of voters, or making it near impossible for anyone to request a recount, or restricting voter registration drives. It was a disagreement between Republicans over whether local government employees should be able to donate to their bosses political campaigns....

It is apparent that the PR machine has been cranked up and is working overtime. The Associated Press picked-up the Leon County story and the always available David Bear of Diebold is suddenly refusing to speak. Diebold did speak through a letter to Florida and Ion Sancho in Leon County. Of course, they made it all Mr. Sancho's fault. Florida just threw up their hands and said they had nothing to do with anything. In California, two Diebold counties have come out in support of Diebold and say that it can't happen there. That message will surely be repeated in "Diebold counties" across the nation as Diebold and their customers try to save the day. In the meantime there is an excellent OpEd from Centre County, PA below....

The MSM today has been active with news about the resignation of Wally O'Dell and how analysts think that is great for Diebold. There is still very little there about the securities fraud suit or the Leon County test results. I guess we wait to see if they are going to report these stories. In the meantime, counties in North Carolina are lining up to buy Diebold, ignoring what news there is and the fact that they were probably illegally certified to be used in the state. This brings us to the lawsuit itself and the judge has delayed proceedings for a week while he becomes familiar with the case. That helps no one, least of all the counties who need to make decisions....

Today was a big news day. The Election Assistance Commission announced that they have adopted the new 2005 voluntary voting system guidelines. Diebold is very prominent in the news. We now have a pretty good reason for the sudden resignation of their CEO and President, Wally O'Dell. A securities fraud lawsuit was filed in federal court in Ohio against the corporation and 8 present and former officers. Also, late this afternoon (in fact so late that there is nothing yet in the news about it) it was reported that a security test was done of the Diebold voting system in Leon County, FL. The system failed miserably to stop the intrusion and changing of votes and no record of the intrusion was given though votes were changed. This has resulted in the county elections director to say that he would never use Diebold in an election again. (See BlackBoxVoting.Org for more information)...

The big news for today is the surprise resignation of Wally O'Dell as chairman and CEO of Diebold. It is apparent from the Diebold press release and from MSM news articles that the resignation was not on friendly terms and that Wally may have been forced out. The news from Ohio is grim. The state senate is sure to pass HB-3 which will strip much of the voting rights from citizens of the state....

As an introduction, the "DVN Top 5" is a feature that I have been providing in the weekly voting newsletter of VoteTrustUSA. The December 5 edition can be found here. The selection of what will be the "Top 5" for each week and where it goes on the list is all mine. The fact that you may disagree with my choices is great because it shows that you have been reading the DVN articles that I've posted throughout the week here on BRAD BLOG!...